4. Final remarks
Observations made during the exercise showed clearly an obvious heterogeneity among European Member States, especially in two areas: treatment of waste and development of markets for secondary materials. It is obvious that the technology and the potential for high performing waste management systems is already in the market and available to those regions, municipalities, waste authorities or waste contractors willing to improve their performance. However, the construction sector shows a traditional behaviour, which heavily relies on standards, while being completely economically driven. In addition, the high variety of actors involved in the CDW value chain creates a complex mesh of responsibilities, with very different decision-making chains across European Member States. Of course, the low impact of any waste-related decisions on construction project budgets does not encourage improvement beyond current standard practices. Therefore, most of the observed efforts focus on the creation of drivers addressing the whole landscape of construction stakeholders across the construction value chain. Systematic documentation of current best practices observed across Europe provides an evidence base to develop policies and management strategies that deliver circular economy solutions to the construction sector.
